Surely you guys are not routed to your seats at home polishing the Graphics...It would be nice to hear about some recent experiences 'out in the field' as it were.Done any good pictures lately with the Graphics.

Too much talk about stripping then down or adding a few more nuts & bolts.A lot of us are beyond this stage.

We need an update on what the Graphic is doing,the poor thing hasn't given up the ghost yet-they are working models,and bags of life in them yet!.

I get tired of the 'modern' photographer spending $$$bucks (or,£££ pounds)then putting the cameras into the drawer,awaiting the next model to trade in.They bore the pants off you.

So lets have a lively debate on what the Graphic is doing in this World from someone.

p.s.I bought a monitor screen for the computer-it packed up after 5-months,Ouch!my Graphics are all over 50-years old and still working.Technology today,forget it!.Perhaps these guys feel the same way about the modern digital camera-$$$ being spent,so they better not use it.

On 2006-02-25 05:08, Graflex Sid wrote:
Surely you guys are not routed to your seats at home polishing the Graphics...It would be nice to hear about some recent experiences 'out in the field' as it were.Done any good pictures lately with the Graphics.

Too much talk about stripping then down or adding a few more nuts & bolts.A lot of us are beyond this stage.

We need an update on what the Graphic is doing,the poor thing hasn't given up the ghost yet-they are working models,and bags of life in them yet!.

I get tired of the 'modern' photographer spending $$$bucks (or,£££ pounds)then putting the cameras into the drawer,awaiting the next model to trade in.They bore the pants off you.

So lets have a lively debate on what the Graphic is doing in this World from someone.

p.s.I bought a monitor screen for the computer-it packed up after 5-months,Ouch!my Graphics are all over 50-years old and still working.Technology today,forget it!.Perhaps these guys feel the same way about the modern digital camera-$$$ being spent,so they better not use it.

Well, Horace, even though we're having a phony winter in my area I haven't been out shooting much. For some reason the weather is worse on weekends when I'm free than on weekdays when I'm not.

But I have done a little shooting, more in the way of testing than serious photography. Not long ago I bought another long lens to use on my tandem rig (two little Graphics front to back makes one long camera) and took enough shots with it to confirm that its ok.

My holiday shots, mainly closeup and all in Florida, were so horrible that I suspect all sorts of problems with my gear and me. Not a one in good focus. So I recently did a set of test shots designed to sort out whether I just can't focus, or shot stopped too far down, or the lens I used isn't as good as it used to be. I fear the problem may have been gross camera/tripod movement (not vibration, movement) on insertion of film holder because many of the bad shots were taken on really horrible footing. But if I'm the problem, I'd like to know it and fix it.

Actually,Dan...it's darn cold here in London,that nasty wind that cuts you into two.Anyhow,I know it's not the time of year to be out & about (or is it!)but it's nice to find out how many here keep our Graphics pointing towards picture material.

Interestingly as I write this,police cars and fire engines have just gone racing by to some incident.In the old days we would have grabbed our Graphic & press pass & gone chasing after them.

Today,some guy with a camera phone would scoop you to the crash/fire before the Graphic came out of the bag.How times have changed,and maybe nobody would care either.

Too bloody cold here. Below zero F a much of the time. Not much here to shoot, either. Just miles and miles if featureless white. Spring will come some day and I'll be ready. I won't even drive if I don't have to this time of year.

I recently bought a newer truck to go out shooting in but I'm spending my time off fixing the little things that should have been done already, this week I get to pull the motor mount and replace the leaking freeze plug behind it and it may rain and I do not have a garage. But.............
The Super Speed that Gandolf just dated at a 1958 cleaned up nicely and is in better shape than the 1963 that I have working. I got new batteries and both work but the 63 has leaking caps and the 58 does not. Maybe I can get out one of the two day off this week and shoot something. Then I will get the other 1000 shutter running so I can shoot with both cameras at the same time.

Charles

_________________The best camera ever made is the one that YOU enjoy using and produces the image quality that satifies YOU.

Hi Sid,
I wouldn't call it routed to my seat, but I have various projects finished or thereabouts so that I can get back to the actual shooting projects I have been planning. Some of the cameras getting ready to go are a GVII for some things around home and town, a neat and very clean Mini-Speed with roll back holder clips for which I set 'er up with a 127 Velostigmat.
A Speed 23 set up with beautiful 135 Optar. A Speed 45 rescued from a very bad state and now sporting a 7-1/2 Ilex. And last but most important is my backpack kit which has changed from the el'cheapo Century to the finer made Crown 23 and if nothing else can get me unglued from my polishing chair, the call of the high desert and Granite peaks of the Sierra will...
A friend just suggested the other day that I should consider digital to save some weight in my backpack. I thought about suggesting he hold his head down in the toilet water and see if he could breath but thought I might see if I could help with this when next I visit.

[quote]
On 2006-02-25 05:08, Graflex Sid wrote:
Surely you guys are not routed to your seats at home polishing the Graphics...It would be nice to hear about some recent experiences 'out in the field' as it were.Done any good pictures lately with the Graphics.

Just to gladden Graflex Sid's heart, I can tell you that this Saturday my Speed Graphic will be photographing a Black Five, a Standard Four and a Jubilee. Sid will surely know what I'm talking about but for everybody else these are descriptions of classes of British railway steam locomotives.

The weather while not really bad is something of an obstacle. However, I'll have to brave it shortly as I just mounted up a 240 Tele Optar in barrel and I need to "ask it what it can do" with my Speed. Hope it works out,as it is nice and compact compared to my Tele Arton 270, Tele Xenar 360, and 15" Tele Optar.

While I did not mention any current photography in my above post, we are having some storms go through this week and I have been photogrpahing the clouds clearing over the harbor now for the last two winters and also some night photography when I can catch the moonrise. Have also been working on some park landscapes as a means to test some lenses, film backs,developing and print techniques over the last few months, almost exclusively with Graphic 23 and 45 cameras, hand held and supported, wide open and stopped down, pushed and pulled, expanded and contracted and so forth and so on... However, all this polishing and tinkering has not been entirely for my own work as I have sent at least five cameras back out into the world in good working order, and brought back a Speed 45 for a documnetary photographer who has done good work with it in the past and hopes to do more soon. For my own part I am looking at scanners so I can post some images on a modest web site so you can all see that I am perhaps better off polishing and refurbishing "routed" to my chair... and since I want one of the type that will handle a couple 4x5's I must wait until I get my allowance a few more years so I can afford it, but by then I may have enough blue chip stamps or even a paper route...and who knows, maybe we will have some new kind of computerized image capturing devise by then...

Shock,Horror,a friend of mine has just spent $$$$ thousands on the latest digital gear,I won't mention the brand,let's say the tops,& what does he tell me-got a duff memory card in the camera the first time he tries it out.(and a couple of other problems as well).

Big deal I thought!..while technology sorts itself out,I'll just rattle off a few more pics with the Graphic.

Im sorry,but it's a good job these modern inventions were NOT around on the battlegrounds in the past-The Graphics done a wonderful job of work without worrying about batteries,memory cards and where do I plug in.

As a former Pressman,I can appreciate how simple photography was in days gone by.I don't care what the modern generation say.(they haven't lived).

Four weeks ago I shot at a WW II re-enactment with a 4x5 Anny Speed. Very old school, press #5 bulbs and sheet film.
This week it's almost as cold as Glenn's spread out west, zeroish and a nasty northwest wind. You can smell the artic tundra in the air. So I've been getting my darkroom in order; obtained matching vintage Wollensak Enlarging Raptars in 50, 90, and 135mm for the D2 and re-firbished a Kodak Miniature Portable Enlarger for 35mm in the field (runs on a 12v car battery!)
Three weeks until spring (yeah, right!)
Top

All my dogs are used to me pointing some big black box at them. The real problem is keeping the nose prints off the lens. So, I decided to shoot some equine portraits. No problem shooting with the Speed. But, then I whipped out the Auto Graflex and tripped the curtain.
Horses don't like loud snappy noises that close to them!

Hey CamZ,
according to the rest of the country, and other parts of the world, it is too cold outside to endulge in photographic behavior. Here in So Cal it is rather chilly in the middle of the day with the mercury rising only to the bone chilling extreme of 65 degrees above. I am surprized your shutter didn't freeze up and you heard any buzz or snap at all. I decided not to go out again until it is at least in the 70's. That is unless I hear of any more ponies running down PCH again over a hundred mph.

Well, snow has been falling coontinuously here for two days and it doesn't seem it will stop soon. So before taking the Speed out, I think I'll take out a shovel and a brush to lift off one foot of snow once again so that I can reach the letter box in the hope the Postman dropped the Graflex Photography book I bought last week.

Well the truck has a freeze plug leaking and it is behind the motor mount so as I go to change it out the radiator drain plug lug breaks off so no draining the radiator via its drain. The block drain plug won't budge either. I did not want to pop a hose and spill fresh antifreeze with stop leak everywhere so I put the tools up, went and got a haircut and came back at 4pm. The Polaroid type 52 is still in the freezer and the very outdated pro 100 color was out so I put the 545 in the 58 Super Speed and used my Luna Pro F in ambient mode to see what would happen. EI 25 and 145 second developement worked fairly good. The film did have some purplish streaks but overall good. Now I know I have the RF adjusted properly and the body has no major problems nor does the bellows have any light leaks.

After no power Monday night, scattered showers Tueaday and more rain tonight and tomorrow the 590 to 610 did not bother me. I got the truck air conditioner recharged and working Tuesday as after the showers it was up to 630.
Charles